Automated Timetable Scheduling System For Direct Entry Student.

Automated Timetable Scheduling System for FTMK Direct Entry Student (ATSS)

TN. MOHD FAKHRUZZAMAN B. TN ISMAIL

This report is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
Bachelor of Computer Science (Software Development)

FACULTY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
UNIVERSITI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA

2008

TESIS APPROVAL STATUS FORM

JUDUL: AUTOMATED SCHEDULING SYSTEM FOR FTMK DIRECT ENTRY STUDENT
SESI PENGAJIAN: 2007108
Saya TUAN MOHD FAKHRUZZAMAN B. TUAN ISMAIL
(HURUF BESAR)
mengaku membenarkan tesis (PSM/Sarjana/Doktor Falsafah) ini disimpan di
Perpustakaan Fakulti Teknologi Maklumat dan Komunikasi dengan syarat-syarat
kegunaan seperti berikut:

1. Tesis adalah hakmilik Kolej Universiti Teknikal Kebangsaan Malaysia.
2. Perpustakaan Fakulti Teknologi Maklumat dan Komunikasi dibenarkan
membuat salinan untuk tujuan pengajian sahaja.
3. Perpustakaan Fakulti Teknologi Maklumat dan Komunikasi dibenarkan
membuat salinan tesis ini sebagai bahan pertukaran antara institusi pengajian
tinggi.
4. * * Sila tandakan (I)
SULIT

(Mengandungi maklumat yang berdarjah
keselamatan atau kepentingan Malaysia
seperti yang termaktub di dalam AKTA
RAHSIA RASMI 1972)

TERHAD

(Mengandungi maklumat TERHAD yang
telah ditentukan oleh organisasilbadan di
mana penyelidikan dijalankan)

TIDAKTERHAD

(TANDATANGAN PENULIS)
Alamat tetap : Lot 341
K m 5 Jln Sultan Yahya Petra
15200 Kota Bharu
Kelantan
Tarikh

..........................................
CIK INTAN ERMAHANI BT. ABD JALIL

Tarikh :

CATATAN: ** Jika tesis ini SULIT atau TERHAD, sila lampirkan surat daripada
pihak berkuasa.
A Tesis dimaksudkan sebagai Laporan Projek Sarjana Muda (PSM)

DECLARATION

.

I hereby declare that this project report entitled

Automated Timetable Scheduling System (ATSS) for Direct Entry Student

is written by me and is my own effort and that no part has been plagiarized
without citations.

AKHRUZZAMAN B.TUAN ISMAIL)
SUPERVISOR

Date

:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the name ofAllah the Almighty and most Mercifirl

Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to Miss Intan Ermahani and PN
Haslinda my faculty supervisor for facilitating me in the process of undergoing my
Projek Sarjana Muda I (PSM I ) and Projek Sarjana Muda II(PSM II). I would also like
to thank all my lecturersfor aiding me with strong academical and technical knowledge
to be implemented during PSM I and PSM II besides giving motivation to gain selfbelief and confidence in the process of developing the system.
I would also like to hank my family for giving me endless support and
encouragement throughout my project.
Last but not least, I would like to convey my special thanks to all of fi-iends and
my course matesfor giving me endless cooperation through thick and thin.

ABSTRACT

Automated timetable scheduling (ATSS) is an online system that is developed for
FTMK management team for construct timetable for FTMK faculty. ATSS use the
technology for making the timetable more easily, faster and systematic compare to
manual system that are using now because it takes longer time only for construct the
timetable. User of this system which is administrator, lecturer, dean, technician, student
especially student direct intake will able to manage their timetable more manageable.
User will be able to impose constraints on the schedule to encompass such irregularities
such as the time constraint for certain lecturer, the software installed in certain lab and

etc. weakness of the current system is not user friendly, and not flexible, wasting time
and effort make the current system not more efficient anymore. Using RUP as
methodology this system is using AJAX,PHP and MYSQL for client side which web
and using Java for RMI.

ABSTRAK

Automated Timetable Scheduling System (ATSS) merupakan satu sistem online
yang dibangunkan untuk memudahkan pihak pengurusan FTMK untuk menyediakan
jadual pembelajaran bagi kegunaan Fakulti FTMK. ATSS menggerakkan sistem
penjadualan kepada teknologi terbaru di mana pengurusan jadual menjadi lebih mudah,
cepat dan sistematik dengan adanya penjadualan secara automatik berbanding sistem
manual yang mengambil masa benninggu-minggu untuk penjadualan jadual waktu.
Pengguna system ini ialah admin, pensyarah, dekan,juruteknik dan pelajar khususnya
pelajar "direct intake" akan menyusun jadual mereka dengan lebih teratur. Pengguna
dapat mengelak daripada .kelemahan sistem semasa yang tidak mesra pengguna, tidak
fleksible, membazir masa dan tenaga menyebabkan sistem semasa tidak mampu untuk
memenuhi kehendak pengguna semasa. Menggunakan metodologi RUP, system ini
dibangunkan menggunakan AJAX, PHP dan MYSQL untuk "client side" dan
menggunakan bahasa pengaturcaraan JAVA untuk membangunkan RMI.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

SUBJECT

PAGE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABSTRACT

iii

ABSTRAK
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
CHAPTER I

CHAPTER I1

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Project Background

1.2

Problem Statement

1.3

Objective

1.4

Scope

1.5

Project Significance

1.6

Expected Output

1.7

Conclusion

LITERATURE REVIEW AND
PROJECT METHODOLOGY

2.1

Introduction

2.2

Facts and Findings

2.2.1 Domain
2.2.2 Existing System
2.2.3 Technique
2.3

Project Methodology

2.4

Project Requirements

viii

2.4.1 Software Requirement
2.4.2 Hardware Requirement
2.4.3 Other Requirement

CHAPTER 111

2.5

Project Schedule and Milestones

2.6

Conclusion

ANALYSIS
3.1

Introduction

3.2

Problem Analysis

3.2.1 Background of Current System

3.2.2 Problem Statements
3 -3

Requirement Analysis

3 -3.1 Functional Requirement -

3 -3-2 Non-functional Requirement
3.3.2 Others Requirement
3.3.4.1 Software Requirement
3.3.4.2 Hardware Requirement
3.4
CHAPTER IV

Conclusion

DESIGN
4.1

Introduction

4.2

High-Level Design

4.2.1 System Architecture
4.2.1.1 Presentation Layer
4.2.1.2 Business Layer
4.2.1.3 Data Layer
4.2.2 User Interface Design
4.2.2.1 Navigation Design
4.2.2.2 Input Design
4.2.2.3 Output Design
4.2.3 Database Design

4.2.3.1 Conceptual Database Design
4.2.3.2 Logical Database Design
4.4

CHAPTER V

Conclusion

IMPLEMENTATION

5.1

Introduction

5.2

Software Development Environment Setup

5.2.1 Software Architecture Setup
5.2.2 Hardware Architecture Setup
5.3 S o h a r e Configuration Management
5.3.1 Configuration Environment Setup
5.3.2 Version Control Procedure
5.4

Implementation Status

5-5 Conclusion

CHAPTER VI

TESTING

6.1 Introduction
6.2 Test Plan
6.2.1 Test Organization
6.2.2 Test Environment
6.2.3 Test Schedule
6.3 Test Strategy
6.3.1 Classes of Tests
6.4 Test Design
6.4.1 Test Description
6.4.2 Test Data
6.4.2.1 System Test Data
6.4.2.2 Integration Test Data
6.5 Test Result and Analysis
6.6 Conclusion

viii
CHAPTER VII CONCLUSION
7.1 Observation on Weaknesses and Strengths
7.2 Propositions for Improvement
7.3 Contribution

7.4 Conclusion

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE

PAGE

TITLE
Milestone
Description of Assignsubject Use Case
Description of Generate Schedule Use Case
Description of Manage User Info Use Case
Description of Assign Schedule Info Use Case
Description of Manage Schedule Information Use Case
Description of View and Print Schedule Use Case
Description of Assign Student DE Schedule Use Case
The table below shows the non-functional requirements
in ATSS application.

Software Requirement
Hardware Requirement
Login Interface Input-Output Design
Subject Priority Interface Design
ATSS Main Interface

Data Dictionary for ATSS
ATSS Version Control

r

Implementation Status for Each'ModuIe

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE

PAGE

TITLE

2.1

Conventional System

2.2

Asctimetables main page

2.3

Timetable website main page

2.4

Three tier Architecture
Client S e w e r Architecture
Two tier Architecture
Three tier Architecture
Main components of a Decision Support System, DSS

RUP Phase Process
Use case of ATSS
System Architecture of ATSS System
Activity Diagram for ATSS
ATSS login Interface
ATSS Subject Priority Interface
ATSS Main Interface

ERD for ATSS

/

Software Architecture of ATSS
5.2

Configuration Environment Setup for ATSS

LIST OF APPENDIX
Appendix A : Gant Chart
Appendix B : Input Design
Appendix C : Output Design
Appendix D : Data Dictionary
Appendix E : Algorithm
Appendix F : User manual

Automated Scheduling System for Direct Entry Student(ATSS)

TN.MOHD FAKHRUZZAMAN B. TN ISMAIL

UNIVERSITI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA

-

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Project Background

Nowadays, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) brings a new
technology to change and ease the scheduling management that will give a more
systematic and efficient process. Timetable was handled traditionally by using
builder's logic where Head Department will assign subjects to the lecturers and the
committee will schedule the timetable manually. This process can cause error to the
scheduling management and it's a massive task to the committee.
Automated Timetable Scheduling System for FTMK Direct Entry Student
will help user to generate the timetable schedule automatically by referring to the
I

subjects' priority, lab capacity, s o h a r e availability and so on. This system will
generate three timetables for lecturers, students, and labs. Adrnin will manage the
schedule scheduling for any required changes in two methods, which are by one-byone input of lecturer and subject, or by priority. For direct intake student, they will
have option to manage their timetable scheduling, process on their where they can
choose to have a manually-customized schedule or this system will provide them an
auto-generated timetable.

Through this system, developing the services logic that controls the concepts

of managing the complexity of scheduling with fully automated scheduling process
will improve logistic thinking and skills in decision support system development
within artificial intelligent subject. This system will be developed using java

platform provided by SUN Microsystems and the suitable database such as MySQL
to store the data in more efficient and safety way.

1.2

Problem Statement
The idea to develop ATSS occurs from the several problems that have been

identified from the traditional system where timetable scheduling process was
handled manually that require staff having to identified every schedule to make sure
there are no redundancy for the class placement at any specific time. This process
will be a burden to be managed by the assigned staff and it require a lot of discipline
and logistic for checking. Traditional process also affecting some direct entry and
student who repeat subjects student. As an example the direct entry student have to
manage their own timetable depending to their own timetable depending on the
subjects timetable that have been offered for them in that semester.
Function
User will be able to view the planned schedule in an easily readable fomat.
User will be able to provide a seed schedule for modification/completionby
the system.
User will be able to modify the schedule proposed by the system.
User will be able to impose constraints on the schedule to encompass such
irregularities such as the time constraint for certain lecturer, the software
installed in certain lab and etc.

Form
Web-based
Simple to use and understand
o Basic options presented first

o Advanced options available
Variety of constraints
Constraints specified at both macro (over-all) and micro (quarter) level.
Little user input needed for "basic" schedules.

Secure
o Access levels allowing other actors to view schedules that are not
their own (for example, an Advisor should be able to view an
advisee's schedule)

Economy
Lightweight Utility
Inexpensive to develop

Low hardware requirements
Time
Able to change requirements for Priority, capacity and description for places
Able to add new lab, classes
Able to remove lab, classes

1.3

Objective
The general objective in developing this system is to improve the scheduling

management. Below are the lists of the objective of the ATSS

To provide a powefil tool that can be used for semi-automated scheduling
timetable and manage it

To apply skills such as programming, documentation, design interface and
database gained during study in UTeM

To apply the DSS(decision support system) in generating semi-automated
scheduling timetable

To help direct intake student to arrange their timetable easily and in
systematic way.

1.4

Scope

1.4.1

User

The target users for this system are users within FTMK who need to manage
their timetable scheduling for teaching or learning objective. Users will be grouped
referring to their task and job position.
i.

Dean

ii.

Lecturers

iii.

Students
-especially for Direct Entry Student

iv.

Technician

v.

Admin

vi.

staff

1.4.2 Functionality
The main function in the ATSS is for direct-entry student, they will be given
options, whether to build their time schedule suggested by the system, or they can
manually manage it by themselves and also to reduce workload of assigned staff to
/

schedule timetable. Head Department Will assign task for every lecturers related to
their teaching subjects. Then the schedule will be build automatically referring on the
task given, software available at the lab, and lab or classroom capacity. If any
changes required, changes will be handled manually.

1.5

Project Significance

In order to schedule timetables, a good concentration, discipline, and logistic
are required to avoid errors or redundancy. Staffs involved also showing that
traditional process is lacking of efficiency and not optimal. This ATSS system is a
solution for the traditional process where the manual process will be replaced with an
automatic process. With this system, staff will have no worries about class or lab

redundancy at related time. Also, direct intake students will benefits fiom this system
to schedule their timetable. Students can also view their timetable everywhere via
internet as this system is built on web-based applications.

1.6

Expected Output

ATSS system will be built using two advances technologies, by using webbased application and also distributed system. In distributed system, Remote Method
Invocation (RMI) will be used to schedule the timetables and web application will be
used as a platform to preview the result. Timetables scheduling will be built in
systematic way and without having any redundancy. Timetables can be previewed on
websites or either it can be downloads in Microsoft Excel formatted for personal
keeping.

1.7

Conclusion
As the conclusion for this chapter, ATSS can be used as a solution to the

problem for complicated timetable scheduling into being a fast-build and efficiency
way to solve timetable problems.
The next activity to be carried out is to complete the chapter 2. Chapter 2
/

consists of fact and finding, project methodology, project requirements and project
schedules and milestones. In order to complete this chapter, a lot of effort needs to be
done on research about proposed title, including study on related journals, research
reports, and articles.

CHAPTER 11

LITERATURE REVIEW AND PROJECT METHODOLOGY

2.1

Introduction
Literature reviews were done based on the surveyed of the previous

scheduling timetable business process. The review covered the theory and concepts
which will be used in generating automated timetable scheduling. Literature review
is showing the research that related to the project topic. The meaning of literature
review is a critical look of existing research that significant to the works that are
carried out. Literature review is important because it show the target of the project.
This chapter contain all the research that has been done on the previous
system and existing system on the internet including reviews on the features,
/

capabilities and so on. All the weaknesses on the current or existing system were
identified in order for this project to overcome and the strength of the existing system
are identified and studied so that it can be implemented in the system.

The methodology consists of several phases as guidelines that are to be
achieved. The project requirements such as software and hardware, for the project
development are determined. The project milestone from the start until the delivery
phases are also will be brief and list in this chapter. The milestone and Gantt chart is
important as a guideline to ensure the project can be finish according to the schedule
and plan.

Fact and Findings

2.2

Fact and Finding is a discovery of fact or accurate information. This section
conveys about the timetable, analyze the existing system, to find out the strength and
weaknesses of the system. After all the strength and weakness has been analyze, it
will then been applied to the system and the failure and weaknesses will then been
improved. All the fact and finding will be support by a review of the existing system
and technique that related used by the others and based on the interview of the end
users. Besides that, all the related information can be gathered by using internet and
books.

2.2.1 Domain

The Automated Timetable Scheduling System for FTMK direct entry student
(ATSS) will be used at FTMK. This system currently used manual business process
that can easily lead to problem. The ATSS is important because the timetable is a
guideline for the lecturers and students to be used through suit the semester.
As we can see, automated planning and scheduling is within artificial
intelligence that regarding the realization of strategies or action sequences, typically
for execution by intelligent agents, autonomous robots and unmanned vehicles.
/

Compare with classical control and 'classification problems, the solutions are
complex, unknown and have to be discovered and optimized in multidimensional
space. Solutions can be found and evaluated prior to execution. Solutions usually
resort to iterative trial and error processes commonly seen in artificial intelligence.
These include dynamic programming, reinforcement learning and combinatorial
optimization. A typical planner takes three inputs which are the description of the
initial state of the world, a description of the desired goal, and a set of possible
actions.

The difficulty of planning in building automated scheduling is dependent on
the simplifying assumptions of staff such as the. atomic time, deterministic time,
complete observables, etc. Classical planners make all these assumptions and have
been studied most fully. Some popular techniques includes the forward chaining and
backward chaining state-space search, possibly enhanced by the use of relationships
among conditions or heuristics synthesized from the problem, search through plan
space, and translation to propositional probability. If the assumption of determinism
is dropped and a probabilistic model of uncertainty is adopted, then this leads to the
problem of policy generation for a Markov decision process (MDP) or (in the general
case) partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP).
This project can increase the efficiency of cost besides allowing the easier
way to produce timetable.

2.2.2

Existing Systems

i)

Conventional systems

-

L--

Meeting for generate
t~metable

Head of department
w~llbe divide the
task

V
The trmetable will
be arranged based
on course

v
The timetable will
be check

Yes

v

,

Timetable
successfully
generate

Figure 2.1: Conventional System

FTMK currently used manual business process to build the timetable. The
FTMK team will attend a meeting than Head of Department will be dividing the task.
The staff will be arranging the timetable based on course. Finally, the entire
timetable will be check again to avoid redundant. The output of this process is three

timetable, which is lecturer timetable, class timetable and lab timetable. This process
would lead to several problems to the scheduling management and it's a massive task
to the committee. The business process applied to this system needed many manual
process flows during scheduling the timetable.

Some of the problems were related to human mistakes that can cause to
timetable redundancy during manually scheduling the timetables. Since the
timetables were written on paper, this process can caused to several missing
important data if it was not properly kept.